I have a hard time believing that Blizz would limit a cool mount that is bound to draw people in to only the select few that try the beta. Either it's going to be a promotion that extends outside of the beta OR there's going to be an open beta at some point, making it possible for everybody to participate in this.

I'm hoping for the latter, since that would mean I can at least guaranteed get my mitts on this game before launch.

I guessing at an open beta period. It's Blizzard's first F2P game and I imagine they want in as many hands as possible so I can see an open beta being something they do really.

I personally feel any Blizzard game is at least worth trying, regardless of my initial impression of it. The mount just serves as added motivation for those whose only real experience with Blizzard is through WoW.

Hah! I hadn't heard of this. This will create a huge influx of "trial" players aiming to get their mount count a little higher on WoW And considering some people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for mounts, I wouldn't be surprised if just about every WoW player gave Hearthstone a shot.

'cause you'll either get the mount from participating in the beta, or from buying a card pack during the beta ... both of which pretty much necessitate an open beta. I'm leaning toward the former because I have a slightly-hard time imagining they'll be selling packs before the game is actually live. What happens if you buy a pack, get whatever cards, then those cards get changed during the beta ? Yeah, same thing could happen for packs you buy after the game goes live, but I think there's a much bigger chance of it happening during the beta. I think it's something they'd want to avoid. Or would be smart to want to.